Interaction Time

The short trip to that firing range over the weekend had been a great reprieve from Azalea's new academic (and assassination, if you can call it that) duties—even if it had only been a few days so far. The sensation on her arm when she had fired the air gun at the available targets was a good stress reliever. Randomly throwing that same gun at her guardian's face once was a bonus.

It was only after the weekend did Azalea realized that her body had been incredibly tense for the past few weeks since moving to Japan. It didn't help that the stress only upped a notch when she learned of her rather peculiar academic predicament and tentacle problem. The absence of the tension within her body made her realize of its presence.

Currently, Azalea was walking towards the rundown school building with a renewed energy despite her indifferent façade on Monday. The long path to the isolated classroom up in the mountain was, without a doubt, good exercise.

Azalea knew she'd be the one of first people to arrive since she did start her trek to school an hour earlier than the supposed normal time. Upon arriving, her suspicions were confirmed true, when not even the students on class duty were present, her turn has yet to come, according to the ikemen pair.

Deciding to pass the time at a quiet place before class starts, she just immediately leaves the building as soon as she puts her bag down on her desk. A book in hand.

The pink haired girl heads straight for the forest near the old school building in search of a good tree branch to perch herself on. For a good read in the peaceful noise that only nature can provide.


If Shiota Nagisa and Sugino Tomohito asked what Azalea was doing in that part of the forest, the girl would have answered it was entirely mere coincidence. And it was the truth.

Right now, her blue haired classmate had his hand on her mouth and she was unable to properly utter a word. A quick look around made it clear why the two were trying to keep her silent.

There, on the clearing, was their unkillable teacher reading, what was clearly an American newspaper, with a drink in hand. Had she known that this was where their homeroom teacher hung around before classes started, she would have entirely avoided the area.

Alas, on her way back to the school building, her eyes connected itself to her two classmates who were whispering among themselves. Feeling her stare, Shiota's eyes flew towards her. His sudden change in composure alerted Sugino. In turn, Sugino hurried to make motions to keep her quiet while Shiota just abruptly slapped a hand over her mouth before she could even open her mouth. Honestly though, she was going to turn around, leave and mind her own business.

Eight 'o clock on a Monday morning was too early to cause a ruckus.

When it was clear to both boys that she wasn't going to make a sound, Shiota carefully removed his hand, clearly still afraid that she'd make a sound. Azalea had the faintest urge to roll her eyes at the boy, instead she opted to look even more deadpanned at him, specifically.

Nagisa held up his hands in surrender at his stoic classmate whose violet eyes looked even more dead to him. He immediately thinks that he had somehow, maybe, irritated the girl when he just put his hand on her mouth, to silent her. Sweatdropping, he looks away from those pair of dead set eyes as his own nervous ones focused on his friend's standing form. Thank goodness, the girl follows his gaze soon.

Sugino breathes a sigh of relief at the averted disaster, before he squared his shoulders. As his body takes its best pitching form, he carefully readies the baseball on his gloved hand—making sure that the anti-sensei bullets he painstakingly glued on the ball were still stuck. He breathed again, soon he can sense the familiar tension gathering in his body. He barely noticed the two pairs of eyes observing him firmly.

Soon, Shiota and Azalea watched as Sugino expertly threw a baseball covered with the pink bullets at Korosensei.

A perfect pitching form. Azalea observes. It was clear that her classmate, Sugino is a baseball player from his pitching form alone. Forgetting the earlier incident, Azalea found herself impressed at her classmate. An assassination suited to one's skill set.

Unfortunately…

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Nagisa-kun, Sugino-kun, Azalea-san!" was the greeting of their homeroom teacher behind the three students, with a tone that was too cheerful, too smug. The three students turn towards him with varying degrees of disbelief. "Now, show me your best greeting. Don't mumble!"

their target isn't someone, you could easily kill.

"Ohayo." Azalea replies with her usual emotionless tone. She stands up from her crouch within the bushes. Her right hand cradling her book the entire time as her left hand proceeded to remove an invisible dirt or two on her skirt.

Sugino was flabbergasted, looking back and forth at Korosensei's current position and where he should have been, or where his body should have been.

Shiota follows Azalea's greeting with a stutter on his voice and a sweatdrop on his temple, "O-ohayo, Korosensei."

When he couldn't keep his disbelief in, Sugino explodes, "HOW?!"

"Embedding a ball with anti-sensei BB was a fine idea! This way there are no sounds of discharge, unlike with an air gun." Korosensei started with his huge grin. The sound of tentacles where ever present as Korosensei moves flamboyantly.

Unlike the usual tuning him out, Azalea was curious to learn the slow-motion version from their otherwise Mach 20 speeding target's perspective.

"However, I can hear the commotion of Azalea-san arriving before Sugino-kun threw the ball at me. Fortunately, I was curious at what you had planned so I waited to see."

At the back of her mind, Azalea confirms that their teacher had sharp hearing at the mention of the hand-slapping incident. Meh, she figured he knew they were there from the start.

"Anyway~! I had some free time before the ball reached me, and if I touched it directly, my cells would unfortunately break apart." It was clear that their teacher has a love of storytelling with how he builds up the anticipation.

"And that's why I went over to the equipment shed and got a baseball glove!" The caught baseball was presented with the mentioned glove held up by one of Korosensei's tentacles.

And he didn't disappoint.

Her two classmates were clearly baffled while Azalea promptly bit the inside of her cheek. Korosensei's eyes she noticed were directed at her.

Turning his back to them, Korosensei calls out. "You should learn from this attempt and should be able to kill me before graduation. Until then, homeroom is about to start!"

The giant yellow octopus heads toward the direction of the school building, leaving them in the thick underbrush that served as their hiding place.

"Hai."

It was clear between the other two students, after such turn of events, Sugino the resident Class E baseball player, was depressed.


Lunch break that day was interesting to say the least.

Once their one and only teacher, Korosensei flies himself to who knows where. The government agent, that one assigned to assist them in their assassination endeavor, addressed the entire class.

"Did you figure out how to kill the target?" Karasuma Tadaomi inquires, entering the classroom in all his stoic glory. Fellow government agents, a woman and a man, following a step behind.

Azalea watched as Karasuma interacted with the class. It was the first time since their initial meeting did she see the stern man once more. Okay, she did see the man or hints of the man prowling about the school building.

Deciding to leave her classmates on the front row interacting with the stoic man, Azalea brings out her own lunch, minding her own business. Alas, the sound of a desk and chair moving against the wooden floor proved that the impassive girl's goal for the day was pointless.

Glancing up at her intruder, er, classmate, Azalea recognizes the orange-brown loose wavy hair and sharp green eyes. Hayami Rinka was dragging the unoccupied desk and chair on Azalea's right. The desks were soon combined, creating ample space for eating without elbows jabbing.

Azalea merely stares at her classmate, who takes her seat and sets out her lunch on the previously unoccupied desk.

When green glares at violet in silent challenge, Azalea continues to set up her lunch bento in her desk (in silent surrender). Soon, both girls start eating her own lunch without a word. The silence enveloping the two was comfortable and companionable for some strange reason.

It was only after they ate did Azalea hand Hayami, her guardian's phone number and email on small piece of paper. At the written numbers, Hayami quietly asks for the other girl's contact with her piercing eyes. Azalea jots her contact info down at the paper's other side.

In front of the classroom, peridot green was watching them the whole time.


"Ezerea-san."

It was a while before Azalea recognizes the male voice. Glancing up, Azalea confirms the voice belonged to the male ikemen class representative, Isogai Yuuma. With his female counterpart not far behind.

How time flies by when you decide to tune everything out. And minding your own business.

It was already time to go home. From the front row, Azalea could see that a very bubbly orange head Kurahashi was looking at her with excitement in her eyes. Yada shaking her head at her friend.

Her classmates were one by one, or group by group, readying or already heading out. At the corner of violet eyes, Azalea could see that Hayami, somewhere in the background, was passing something to Chiba, Azalea had an idea of what they were talking about.

"Nani, Isogai-san?" Azalea directs her gaze at the ikemen.

"Etto," The male starts, seemingly at a loss for words. The ease and confidence when he called out the poker-faced girl's name disappearing once those violet orbs zeroed in on him, unsure of how to start. Kataoka clears her throat, she continues for her partner.

"Ezerea-san, we wanted to ask you if we could borrow your idea of attacking sensei simultaneously with lesser members in a group."

"That's right." Isogai breathes out, an easy smile once again forming on his handsome face.

Azalea blinks at the request, processing the girl's words.

At the blank girl's momentary silence, Isogai adds, "Is that alright, Ezerea-san? We didn't want to just steal your idea after all. Also, you can join in."

"It's fine. Go ahead." Azalea finally replies. In her mind, the idea was inspired by three big monkeys.

Her two classmates visibly sigh in relief at her words.

Gathering her things, Azalea stands up with her bag in hand. Kataoka reiterates in asking her if she wanted to join the group at their assassination which Azalea politely declines.

The three walks out the classroom with Azalea in between the class representatives. Kurahashi and Yada were soon a step behind them, clearly accompanying the impassive girl on their way towards home.

Isogai also inquires how she was doing since she had joined the class. Azalea honestly answers, she'd been doing well so far. The unspoken Not echoed loudly in her mind, her current companions did not need to know about that.

With a nod at the waving representatives, she parts from the pair for another pair of classmates. Kurahashi and Yada.

Yey


The next day at Home economics finds Azalea grouped with the class delinquents and Hara. Terasaka Ryoma, Azalea noticed, was the wild group's leader. Watching him talk was both exhausting.

Staring at their assigned cooking station, Azalea tunes out the very boisterous group to listen to Korosensei speak passionately about curry.

Curry. Shouldn't be too difficult. Azalea thinks, having not much experience in the kitchen. An took over the cooking for as long as she knew him.

It took time but their group were able to arrange some semblance of cooperation within their group. The delinquents with Hara were handling food preparation very well. Soon, Azalea and her group realized a grave mistake.

"AZALEA-SAN!" Korosensei shrilly screamed.

Had it not been, one of the male student's quick thinking and his near proximity to the fire extinguisher...

(Azalea, later, notes that the male student was Takebayashi Koutarou. The male classmate with glasses.)

...Celeste Azalea could have burned down the classroom, when the pan she was holding was shooting up flames upwards that almost reached the ceiling.

Terasaka Ryoma was yelling at her for being dumb. Words from the delinquent was barely registered by Azalea who was just blankly staring at him, watching and waiting for him run out of oxygen. It was the first time, she encountered anyone to be so loud up close. She mentally adds deafening to his description of him.

Exhausting and deafening to interact with.

Hara Sumire was telling her to be more careful and screaming back at Terasaka to not be too angry at Azalea and that accidents do happen. Which resulted to more yelling on the delinquent leader's part when he took one big, deep breath.

The delinquents, Muramatsu Takuya and Yoshida Taisei was staring at the mess that resulted from the fire. Hazama Kirara was snickering into her hand, seemingly delighted at the destruction Azalea unintentionally caused.

The rest of the rooms occupants were sweatdropping at the sight they've made.

Later, Korosensei announces that had Azalea not burned the curry the group made together, they'd all be poisoned from its taste. Where the poison came from will be a mystery unsolved when the group, except for Azalea, were handling the ingredients with great care and experienced hands.


At lunch, Azalea barely notices the spectacle outside created by Korosensei talking to Sugino. The girl had Hayami's hand patting her on the shoulder in comfort?

For the fire incident at Home Economics. The gesture told her.

Except, Azalea could clearly see the amusement in Hayami's eyes and she could spy the same in Chiba's shoulders who wasn't even looking at them.

After their meal, Hayami tells her that she passed An's contact information to Chiba, who had reached out to An the night before to confirm the promised lesson at the firing range. Azalea merely nods at Hayami when the other girl clearly wanted/demanded her there.

The pink haired girl could feel a small headache forming.

Which only worsened later at PE.

Defying physics clearly was a walk in the park when one was clearly non-human in nature. Azalea observes as Korosensei was demonstrating physical maneuvers he expects his clearly human students to perform.

Their teacher, for all his high intellect, had no common sense sometimes.


Azalea had honestly forgotten of Sugino's bout on lack of self-confidence. She only remembers it once more when a baseball comes flying her way at the end of a longday.

The ball continuously bounces until it stops at her feet.

"Ezerea-san, over here!"

A grinning Sugino shouts at her. His gloved right hand up it the air. Shiota had his own baseball glove in one hand, looking apologetic at her. It was clear with the way they stood a few meters from each other, they were playing catch with Sugino obviously pitching expertly at Shiota's awaiting hand.

Shiota's throw was no match with Sugino's pitch, as the baseball ended up by Azalea's feet instead of Sugino's awaiting hand.

Azalea picks up the ball from the ground in front of her. Curiously, she blinks at Sugino's wide grin before she walks over to him. She peers at his face as she hands it over to him, too mentally tired to toss it over.

At her blatant stare, Shiota wonders loudly, "Something wrong, Ezerea-san?"

"Nandemonai." The pink haired girl answers the feminine looking boy with shrug. She continues after a brief pause, addressing the black-haired male. "Sugino-san is looking much better now."

Her athletic classmate laughs awkwardly, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck in sudden embarrassment. It was a bit embarrassing if he somehow garnered concern from the unemotional girl.

Nagisa grins at Sugino. He turns his head to observe that their stoic female classmate was on her way home. Her bag slung over her shoulder.

"Jaa, matta ashita, Ezerea-san." The blue haired boy called out, as Azalea turns to go home. Sugino mutters the same.

Not expecting a response, both Nagisa and Sugino startled when they hear the now familiar quiet voice, say,

"Matta ashita."


A/N: Had to research on Japanese school curriculum. The canon time table of Class E was blatantly displayed in the anime when Korosensei was punching the wall in episode 3. If I translated/guessed it right, Karma returned to school on a Wednesday as the next day was shown with three periods identifying it as a Thursday…